2025 Predictions and Reality for AI

Guest Post by Brian Smith, Managing Director, Alvarez & Marsal

Lots of on- and off-line publications come up with lists of predictions for the upcoming year, and many often seem implausible or so vague that they can be interpreted any way the reader chooses. I like to try to be practical, so here is my take:

• The hysteria about AI will continue, but real AI-based solutions will become a normal part of day-to-day business operations. At a basic level, AI will speed up research, make customer service agents more informed, and will be deployed to assist tasks that require the consolidation of information from multiple sources. Large companies will set up AI departments, put in place governance processes and develop deployment roadmaps, etc. Smaller firms will empower employees by encouraging the use of readily available tools and will start to look at point solutions for their industry.
• AI will bring new costs, new risks, and new management challenges — but that is no different than what has happened when other new technologies have been adopted, except that it may be happening faster.
• Over time, AI will lead to knowledge being readily available to everyone in an organization, and that will challenge the traditional hierarchies that are often based on tenure and experience of navigating internal organizational silos. AI will not replace actual, real expertise and experience in solving business problems. This effect has the potential to disrupt performance management and compensation processes. It will probably “flatten” hierarchical organizations.

I think 2025 will be a year in which AI deployment will become “business as usual” at some level in most companies. There will still be cutting-edge announcements and lots of debate about the use of AI in medicine, finance, self-driving vehicles, etc., but at a basic level, AI assistants for office work are here now and will become mainstream.

Brian Smith is a Managing Director with Alvarez & Marsal based in New York. He has more than 30 years’ experience as an operational executive and advisor relating to business process and technology globalization and outsourcing, technology management, and restructuring. Prior to joining A&M, Brian held executive management roles at CSC, Citibank, and American Express Bank.

Recently, Brian was a NY Alliance guest speaker and spoke in-depth on the subject of AI and its implications for business.